Afternoon Sessions

The Outreach Librarian initiated a grand adventure with the Graduate College to discover the best approaches to reach out to graduate students. Then the Outreach Librarian met with the Graduate Student Advisory Board and gave them a presentation about the library services available to them. In addition, the Outreach librarian discussed the importance of academic libraries collaborating and partnering with graduate students and Graduate College teaching faculty. Since graduate students use the library in a manner that differs from undergraduate students and faculty, a small survey was given to the Graduate Student Advisory Board members. Survey responses were analyzed to determine what library services the Graduate Student Advisory Board members were already aware of and also what other library services should be made available to graduate students.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City's University Libraries played a major role in starting a campus-wide Graduate Writing Initiative at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Graduate Writing Initiative is a campus-wide effort to improve the process, quality, and impact of graduate student writing. Despite the challenges of reaching a graduate student population of commuters, full-time workers, parents, and online learners, UMKC Libraries helped devise ways to extend the reach of the Graduate Writing Initiative to all. Currently, UMKC Libraries remains a core service of the Graduate Writing Initiative and librarians serve on the campus advisory committee. This presentation will describe the process of getting started (especially getting buy-in from other campus units) and how libraries are poised to offer resources and support in such an initiative. News and updates about current actions and future plans will be shared. The act of creating partnerships with other campus units helped promote the University Libraries and cement its importance to others involved in the initiative. This has paid off in more campus contacts and more departments reaching out to the University Libraries for student orientations, class visits, workshop requests, and other involvement.

The UT Libraries at The University of Texas at Austin has undertaken a series of phased projects in its main library, the Perry-Castaneda Library (PCL), since 2013. These projects have transformed spaces and services, introduced innovative technologies, and developed a forward-thinking culture that is redefining our relationship with the UT community and resulting in collaborations to prototype new means of research lifecycle support and academic success.

The latest project, designed with focus group input and survey responses from over 1,100 graduate students and faculty, and in consultation with the Graduate Student Assembly, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Graduate Student Writing Group, leverages temporary access to an entry-level reading room and adjacent office suites recently vacated by staff. Once lightly retrofitted with internal funding, these areas will be repurposed as a Scholars Commons for silent study, salon events and exhibits to showcase excellence in research, and graduate student collaboration and networking.

Slated to open in January 2016, in addition to varied types of spaces and events, the Scholars Commons will offer consultation services, a Data Lab, and workshops designed with campus partners to enhance research skills and introduce users to digital scholarship tools. The assessment plan will utilize multiple methods to document use and assess the effectiveness of spaces and services, and inform plans for a permanent Scholars Commons. The knowledge gained, assessments used, and “before” and “after” comparisons will be highlights of the presentation.

The Mississippi State University Libraries serves a diverse graduate student population that includes over 140 graduate majors or concentrations and approximately 3600 students. The MSU Libraries has developed a comprehensive approach to meeting the research and professional development needs of graduate students. The panel will be led by Dr. Deborah Lee, Professor and Coordinator of Graduate Student Services at the MSU Libraries; other members of the panel will include representation from the Office of Thesis and Dissertation Review and the Associate Dean for Public Services.

The presentation will include a discussion of the development and use of specialized graduate student workshops offered through the Survival Skills for Graduate Students workshop series. These workshops expand typical coverage of research methods to broader issues related to professional development. Topics include dissertation completion strategies, writing options for a curriculum vitae, and financial literacy. The workshops have been used as a foundation for both outreach and collaborative efforts across campus. Related workshops and support services that target graduate students in the process of formatting and completing their thesis or dissertation will also be included in the panel. Another team member will discuss how individual research consultations and departmental outreach have helped build collaborative endeavors and enhanced graduate student use of the library’s resources.

Non-traditional graduate students typically are pressed for time. Teachers returning for their masters, nurses in a DNP program, small business owners seeking their MBA, all have to find time to study while balancing their careers and families. At the same time, many are re-learning how to study and adapting to new technologies. The one-shot instruction session offers the librarian a chance to not only acclimate the non-traditional student to library database technologies, but also a chance to show how built-in GALILEO tools can be utilized to help the student save time by organizing their research strategically into three phases: the terminology/search string phase, the refinement/limits phase, and the selection/writing phase. This session will include a demonstration of a one-shot that matches GALILEO tools to the research strategy.

George Washington University Libraries were tasked with transforming support for graduate students while taking into account increasing numbers of online students, off-campus programs, and students working full-time. In addition, due to librarian turnover and other factors, we needed to accomplish our goal with a reduced workforce and without reducing services and instruction to our undergraduate population. Our solution focuses our graduate instruction on in-person workshops and digital objects (research guides and “How-Do-I?” videos), along with a “toolkit” with scripts, handouts, presentations, and outlines so that, while one librarian may be the expert (e.g. citation management), any librarian can have the tools to teach that workshop, in the event that expert is on leave, changes roles, or simply too busy.

To better accommodate our graduate student population, we advertised heavily our “What Grad Students Need to Know” research guide, we assigned a librarian to specifically handle our distance education programs, providing both in-person and online support and instruction. Since many students work full-time, and many also are in government positions, we also geared our in-person graduate workshops to line up as much as possible with Federal holidays (Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, MLK Jr. Day, and Presidents’ Day). This presentation will discuss the progress, challenges, and positive outcomes of this initiative.